Apple Hits HTC with Second ITC Patent Complaint

Apple filed a second patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against HTC last Friday. Details of the complaint aren’t available yet, but with a title like “Portable Electronic Devices and Related Software,” it’s a safe bet that Apple is still targeting HTC’s Android-based smartphones.

Apple’s original ITC patent infringement complaint alleged HTC is using iPhone-related technology without permission or proper licensing. That complaint, along with a Delaware-based lawsuit, were filed in March 2010.

At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Dear Bosco: Apple does make phones that Android users love, and so does Microsoft. That is, the Android OEMs copy and use, sometimes licitly and, perhaps, illicitly (as yet to be determined by the courts), with no significant independent innovation or inventiveness from any of them or from Google, the Apple and Microsoft IP that makes Android phones possible and makes them the multi-touch smartphones that Android users love. So in a very real sense Apple, Microsoft, and let’s not forget Oracle make Android phones that Android users love, for without those companies’ innovations, today’s Android phones would look like 2006 Nokia or Palm feature phones.

Dear Daemon: If I recall the description for the patent app, it specifically states that the manipulation in the frame can be done by one or multiple fingers and gives illustrations showing exactly that.